Systems and methods to determine tax classification of benefits offered to subscribers of a membership platform

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are provided for determining tax classification of benefits offered to subscribers of a membership platform. Exemplary implementations may: obtain benefit information for content creators of a membership platform, the benefit information including descriptions of benefit items offered by the content creators to subscribers of the membership platform in exchange for consideration; obtain classification information, the classification information associating benefit type of individual benefit items with individual tax classifications; classify the individual benefit items with the individual tax classifications based on the benefit type of the individual benefit items and the classification information; execute transactions for accepted ones of the offerings based on the individual tax classifications of the individual benefit items, wherein the transactions are based on transaction amounts comprising sale amounts and added tax amounts determined based on the individual tax classifications; and/or other operations.

FIELD

The disclosure relates to systems and methods to determine taxclassification of benefits offered to subscribers of a membershipplatform.

BACKGROUND

Different membership platforms may be utilized by entities seekingcontributions from users to obtain services and/or goods. Some of theseplatforms facilitate raising resources (i.e., funds) through monetarycontributions or donations to support a project. Oftentimes, supportersof a project are given rewards or special perks, where the size and/orexclusivity of the rewards or special perks may depend on the amountcontributed.

The services and/or goods being offered through one or more platformsare subject to tax. The type of service and/or good generally dictateswhat type or amount of tax is applied to the purchase price. Forexample, physical goods may be subject to different tax than digitalgoods.

SUMMARY

One or more aspects of the present disclosure addresses issues arisingin the application of tax to the consideration paid in exchange forbenefit items offered through an online membership platform. Some issuesmay arise in membership platforms that process thousands of transactions(or more) for benefit items by subscribers at any given period of time.A common solution may be to apply a “standard” tax rate to total amountsof the consideration paid. However, this may result in the tax amountbeing below or above the actual tax obligation. This is because the taxapplied to a purchase will vary depending on the type of good and/or thestate of production that the good is in and/or based on the jurisdictionof the consumer. These types of tax calculations may be based on what isreferred to as “value added tax” (VAT). For example, consumers living ina given jurisdiction may be obligated to pay a value added tax (VAT) ondigital goods at the rate that applies in their own jurisdiction,regardless where the seller is located. A value added tax (VAT) may alsobe a consumption tax placed on a good or service when value is added ateach stage of the supply chain, from production to the point of sale.The amount of VAT that the consumer pays is on the cost of the goodand/or service, less any of the costs of materials used in the goodand/or service that have already been taxed. The system may utilize oneor more machine learning models to structure the benefit items intodiscrete units and classify individual benefit items based on taxclassification. The system may facilitate the execution of transactionsby applying the appropriate tax amounts to the final purchase priceand/or remitting the collected tax amounts to the appropriatejurisdictions.

A membership platform may be comprised of users including one or more ofcontent creators, subscribers, and/or other users. Content creators maybe users of the membership platform who offer benefit items tosubscribers in exchange for some consideration. A “benefit item” mayrefer to a good and/or service. A good may comprise a physical goodand/or a virtual good. In some implementations, subscribers may donatefunds to a content creator such that the benefit item may be thealtruism in supporting the content creator. Subscribers may be users ofthe membership platform who subscribe, through payment of a one-time orrecurring (e.g., monthly) fee, to one or more content creators. Asubscriber of an individual content creator may obtain access to benefititems offered through the membership platform by virtue of being asubscriber to the individual content creator. A subscriber of anindividual content creator may obtain preferential access to benefititems offered through the membership platform by virtue of being asubscriber to the individual content creator. Preferential access mayrefer to subscriber-only access to benefit items and/or other content.Preferential access may refer to tiered levels of access to benefititems and/or other content. Different levels of access may offerdifferent quantities, types, and/or combinations of benefit items.Different levels may correspond to different amounts of considerationpaid by the given subscriber. In some implementations, other users ofthe membership platform may obtain limited access to benefit items. Insome implementations, other users may be non-paying users and/orone-time visitors to the membership platform.

One or more aspects of the present disclosure relates to a systemconfigured to determine tax classification of benefits offered tosubscribers of a membership platform. The system may include one or morehardware processors configured by machine-readable instructions. Themachine-readable instruction may include one or more computer programcomponents. The one or more computer program components may include oneor more of a benefit management component, a classification component, atransaction component, a presentation component, and/or other computercomponents.

The benefit management component may be configured to obtain benefitinformation for content creators of a membership platform and/or otherinformation. The benefit information may include descriptions of benefititems offered by the content creators to subscribers of the membershipplatform in exchange for consideration and/or other information. Thebenefit information may describe the benefit items in an unstructureddata format. An unstructured data format may refer to a text-baseddescription proffered by the content creators. The text-baseddescription may be generated by the content creators in their own words,which may comprise jargon and/or a lexicon specific to the contentcreator.

The classification component may be configured to obtain classificationinformation and/or other information. The classification information mayassociate a benefit type of individual benefit items with individual taxclassifications. An individual benefit type may include one or more ofan original digital good type, a physical good type, a donation type,and/or other types. The classification component may be configured toclassify the individual benefit items with the individual taxclassifications based on one or more of the benefit type of theindividual benefit items, the classification information, and/or otherinformation.

The transaction component may be configured to execute transactions foraccepted ones of the offerings based on the individual taxclassifications of the individual benefit items and/or otherinformation. The transactions may be based on transaction amountscomprising one or more of sale amounts, added tax amounts, and/or otheramounts. The added tax amounts may be determined based on the individualtax classifications and/or other information.

As used herein, any association (or relation, or reflection, orindication, or correspondence) involving servers, processors, clientcomputing platforms, and/or another entity or object that interacts withany part of the system and/or plays a part in the operation of thesystem, may be a one-to-one association, a one-to-many association, amany-to-one association, and/or a many-to-many association or N-to-Massociation (note that N and M may be different numbers greater than 1).

As used herein, the term “obtain” (and derivatives thereof) may includeactive and/or passive retrieval, determination, derivation, transfer,upload, download, submission, and/or exchange of information, and/or anycombination thereof. As used herein, the term “effectuate” (andderivatives thereof) may include active and/or passive causation of anyeffect, both local and remote. As used herein, the term “determine” (andderivatives thereof) may include measure, calculate, compute, estimate,approximate, generate, and/or otherwise derive, and/or any combinationthereof.

These and other features, and characteristics of the present technology,as well as the methods of operation and functions of the relatedelements of structure and the combination of parts and economies ofmanufacture, will become more apparent upon consideration of thefollowing description and the appended claims with reference to theaccompanying drawings, all of which form a part of this specification,wherein like reference numerals designate corresponding parts in thevarious figures. It is to be expressly understood, however, that thedrawings are for the purpose of illustration and description only andare not intended as a definition of the limits of the invention. As usedin the specification and in the claims, the singular form of “a”, “an”,and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearly dictatesotherwise.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example membership platform.

FIG. 2 illustrates a system configured to determine tax classificationof benefits offered to subscribers of a membership platform, inaccordance with one or more implementations.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example database.

FIG. 4 illustrates a method to determine tax classification of benefitsoffered to subscribers of a membership platform, in accordance with oneor more implementations

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

One or more aspects of the present disclosure provide improvements inthe processing of thousands, to tens of thousands or more, of onlinetransactions for benefit items offered through an online membershipplatform. The present disclosure proposing utilizing one or more machinelearning models to structure the benefit items into discrete units andclassify individual benefit items based on tax classification. Thepresent disclosure may facilitate the execution of transactions byapplying the appropriate tax amounts to the final purchase price and/orremitting the collected tax amounts to the appropriate jurisdictions.The present disclosure may ensure that the tax amounts are correct sothat an entity utilizing the features and/or functions presented hereinmay not remit tax amounts below or above the actual tax obligation.

Some entities may seek to obtain funds through subscriptions. Suchentities may utilize online membership platforms that allow consumers tosign up for ongoing payments in exchange for rewards or other membershipbenefits. Entities seeking funding may be content creators, for example,artists, musicians, educators, etc. Content creators may create contentin the form of benefit items, which may refer to information,experiences, and/or products provided to an audience or end-user,whether it be digital or physical. For example, content may include butis not limited to video content, podcasts, photographic art, webcomics,do-it-yourself crafts, digital music, performance art, and/or othertypes of content. Content creators may utilize membership platforms thatallow users to become subscribers of the content creator. Assubscribers, consumers may contribute or donate money to a contentcreator on a recurring (e.g., weekly or monthly) basis and/or per pieceof content created by the content creator. Content creators may interactwith subscribers and/or prospective subscribers (e.g., consumers thatshow interest in the content created by content creators) in a varietyof ways. Herein the term “benefit item” may refer to an individual unitof content being offered by the content creator.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example subscriber-based membership system 10(sometime referred to herein as a “membership platform”). A contentcreator 12 may register and set up a creator account with subscriptionplatform 16. Content creator 12 may create a page on a website hosted byserver 22 of subscription platform 16 and input relevant information.Content creator 12 may input information associated with and/or relevantto content creator 12 via subscription component 18, such as creationinformation, content information, information specifying desired and/orinitial subscription levels, preferred revenue source information (e.g.,preferred currency, currency source, and/or other information),identification information (e.g., identification of applicable taxjurisdiction and/or other information), and/or other information. A pagecreated by content creator 12 may be built using such information tomake potential consumers aware of how content creator 12 may wish to besupported/receive support for his/her content creation in addition tosubscribership revenue. Content creator 12 may set up a content creatoraccount with subscription platform 16 through subscription component 18or another appropriate component allowing content creator 12 to registerwith subscription platform 16. Various types of information regardingcontent creator 12 may be input into subscription platform 16, some ofwhich may be information identifying content creator 12.

Consumer 14 (also referred to as “subscriber) may set up a subscriberaccount with subscription platform 16. In setting up the subscriberaccount, consumer 14 may input demographic information relevant toconsumer 14 (e.g., age, income, job, etc.). Information identifyingconsumer 14 (e.g., name, a picture, a phone number, etc.) may be inputby consumer 14 when setting up the subscriber account. Through the pagecreated by content creator 12, a consumer 14 may pledge to donate agiven amount of money to content creator 12 every time content creator12 creates content. For example, if content creator 12 is an artist,consumer 14 may pledge to donate ten dollars each time content creator12 creates a piece of art.

In order to remit payment to content creator 12, consumer 14 may set upa payment mechanism through subscription platform 16 as part of settingup his/her subscriber account. When subscription platform 16 is notifiedor determines that content creator 12 has created content, subscriptionplatform 16 may access payment network 26 to obtain and/or transfer thepledged amount from consumer bank 28 to content creator bank 30.Alternatively (or in addition to per content pledge donations), consumer14 may pledge to donate a given amount to content creator 12 on arecurring basis through subscription platform 16. For example, consumer14 may pledge to donate five dollars each month to content creator 12,where each month, subscription platform 16 may access payment network 26to obtain and transfer the pledged amount from consumer bank 28 tocontent creator bank 30. It should be understood that consumer 14 mayhave an established relationship with consumer bank 28, and that contentcreator 12 may have an established relationship with content creatorbank 30. It should be noted that subscription platform 16 may retain aportion, such as some percentage, of the pledged amount, as a fee forhosting the page created by content creator 12, providing paymentservices, etc.

As consideration for the pledged donations, content creator 12 mayprovide some type of preferential access to consumer 14 in the form of,e.g., special perks or rewards. Content creator 12 may specify tiers ofpreferential access based upon the amount of money consumer 14 pledgesto donate and/or depending on whether the pledged donation is arecurring donation or a per content donation. The amounts and/or typesof pledged donations that may be made by consumer 14 to back contentcreator 12 may be referred to as subscription levels.

For example, in return for a monthly, recurring dollar amount ofdonation, content creator 12 may provide a high-resolution digital imageof the artwork created during that month to consumer 14. In exchange fora weekly, recurring dollar amount of donation, content creator 12 mayprovide a high-resolution digital image of the artwork created duringthat month as well as a time-lapse video of content creator 12 creatingthe artwork. In exchange for another dollar amount per content donation,content creator 12 may provide a low-resolution digital image of theartwork. For another dollar amount per content donation, content creator12 may engage in a live webchat or live meet-and-greet with consumer 14.Various types of preferential access may be provided by content creator12 to consumer 14, and content creator 12 may specify the subscriptionlevel to preferential access correlation.

The preferential access may be provided to consumer 14 from contentcreator 12. For example, content creator 12 may email digital copies ofartwork to consumer 14 over a communications network, such as a localarea network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), a wireless network (e.g.,WiFi), a mobile communication network, a satellite network, theInternet, fiber optic, coaxial cable, infrared, radio frequency (RF) orany other suitable network. The preferential access may be provided toconsumer 14 from content creator 12 via subscriber platform 16. Forexample, the live webchat between content creator 12 and consumer 14 maybe provided through some chat functionality of the page of contentcreator 12 hosted on server 22 of subscription platform 16, which mayreside on communications network 32 or on another network (not shown).

It should be noted that not all subscription levels are necessarilyassociated with preferential access. Some consumers may be driven tosubscribe to content creator 12 on the basis of created content ratherthan any special perks or rewards.

The specification and management of subscriptions on behalf of contentcreator 12 may be handled by subscription component 18 alone or inconjunction with database 24. For example, a user interface may beprovided via subscription component 18 allowing content creator 12 tospecify his/her desired subscription levels and correspondingpreferential access, as well as his/her preferred sources of revenue.Subscription component 18 may receive the information input by contentcreator 12 and transmit the information for storage as one or morerecords, matrices, or other data structures in database 24 or withinmemory local to subscription component 18. Database 24 or the localmemory of subscription component 18 may be configured in a suitabledatabase configuration, such as a relational database, a structuredquery language (SQL) database, a distributed database, an objectdatabase, etc. Suitable configurations and database storage types willbe apparent to persons having skill in the relevant art.

Content creator 12 may add subscribership information, update and/ordelete existing subscribership information, add creation information, aswell as update and/or delete creation information, add, update, and/ordelete preferential access information and/or its correspondence tosubscription levels, etc. Such changes may be input via subscriptioncomponent 18 and reflected in its local memory and/or database 24. Itshould be understood that content creator 12 and/or consumer 14 may bean individual or some entity representative of an individual or group ofindividuals.

Apart from providing preferential access to consumer 14, content creatormay engage with consumer 14 by interacting in a variety of ways. Forexample, content creator 12 may communicate with consumer 14 over email,one or more social media platforms, a messaging platform or otherappropriate communication mechanism or method. It should be understoodthat such communication platforms or mechanisms may be embodied incommunications network 32 allowing content creator 12 and consumer 14 tocommunicate outside of subscription platform 16. It should be understoodthat communication platforms or mechanisms may operate in conjunctionwith subscription platform 16 such that one or more of their respectivefunctionalities may be utilized through subscription platform 16. Forexample, social media hyperlinks allowing information from contentcreator 12's page may be provided on the webpage allowing contentcreator 12 to share content creation progress updates with consumer 14.For example, content creator 12 may respond to a communication fromconsumer 14 posted on a comment section provided on content creator 12'swebpage in a private message or as part of the comment thread. It shouldbe noted that content creator 12 may engage a single consumer, e.g.,consumer 14, one-on-one and/or may engage a group of consumers. Forexample, content creator 12 may post a “public” comment on his/herwebpage that may be seen by any consumer that is a subscriber to contentcreator 12 and/or any consumer that may be a potential subscriber. Itshould be noted that a content creator's subscribers may be collectivelyreferred to as the content creator's community.

FIG. 2 illustrates a system 100 configured to determine taxclassification of benefits offered to subscribers of a membershipplatform. In some implementations, system 100 may include one or more ofserver(s) 102, client computing platform(s) 104, and/or othercomponents. Server(s) 102 may be configured to communicate with one ormore client computing platforms 104 according to a client/serverarchitecture and/or other architectures via one or more network(s) 122.The terms client computing platform, remote computing platform, and/orcomputing platform may be used interchangeably herein to refer toindividual ones of the client computing platform(s) 104. In someimplementations, one or more network(s) 122 may include the Internetand/or other networks. Client computing platform(s) 104 may beconfigured to communicate with other client computing platforms viaserver(s) 102 and/or according to a peer-to-peer architecture, aclient-server architecture, and/or other architectures. Users may accesssystem 100 via client computing platform(s) 104.

It is noted that the system 100 of FIG. 2 may be the same as, orincluded as part of, the system 10 shown in FIG. 1 . For example, theserver(s) 102 may be the same as or included in servers 22. Network(s)122 may be the same as or included in network 32. Individual clientcomputing platforms of one or more client computing platforms 104 may becomputing platforms utilized by content creator 12 and/or consumer 14 toaccess system 10 and/or system 100. Non-transitory electronic storage118 may be the same as or included in database 24. Accordingly, thoseskilled in the art will recognize that although system 10 and system 100are shown and described separately, they may comprise a single commonsystem. However, in some implementations, the features and/orfunctionality of system 100 may be provided remotely as a separatesystem from system 10.

Server(s) 102 may be configured by machine-readable instructions 106.Machine-readable instructions 106 may include one or more instructioncomponents. The instruction components may include computer programcomponents. The instruction components may include one or more of abenefit management component 108, a classification component 110, atransaction component 112, presentation component 114, and/or otherinstruction components.

Benefit management component 108 may be configured to obtain benefitinformation for content creators of a membership platform, and/or otherinformation. The benefit information may include descriptions of benefititems offered by the content creators to subscribers of the membershipplatform in exchange for consideration. In some implementations, thebenefit information may describe a first set of benefit items offered bya first content creator and/or other benefit items offered by one ormore other content creators.

In some implementations, benefit management component 108 may beconfigured to identify the benefit items from the benefit informationusing an unsupervised machine learning model, input by creators into auser interface (see, e.g., presentation component 114), and/or othertechniques. The benefit information may describe the benefit items in anunstructured data format. An unstructured data format may refer to atext-based description proffered by the content creators. The text-baseddescription may be generated by the content creators in their own words,which may comprise jargon and/or a lexicon specific to the contentcreator. For example, in setting up their account, a content creator maysimply type out sentences describing their offered benefit items inplain language. This may result in multiple benefit items beingdescribed jointly and/or in a commingled fashion such that theindividual benefit items as individual units may not be readilyascertained. By way of non-limiting illustration, the benefit managementcomponent 108 may be configured to identify that the first set ofbenefit items includes one or more of a first benefit item, a secondbenefit item, and/or other benefit items.

By way of non-limiting illustration, a description of benefit items byan artist may include “You will receive a high-resolution digital imageof the artwork and a time-lapse video of me creating it!” Accordingly,while it may appear that the benefit item comprises “a high-resolutiondigital image” and “a time-lapse video,” there may actually be twounique benefit items, e.g., a first benefit item being “ahigh-resolution digital image” and a second benefit item being “atime-lapse video.”

In some implementations, unsupervised machine learning may comprise aself-organized learning algorithm. The unsupervised machine learningmodel may utilize one or more clustering, anomaly detection, neuralnetwork, expectation-maximization algorithm, statistical approaches,blind signal separation techniques, and/or other techniques.

Classification component 110 may be configured to determine the benefittype of the individual benefit items. An individual benefit typeincludes one or more of an original digital good type, a physical goodtype, a donation type, and/or other type. An original digital good typemay include digital and/or virtual goods originally created by thecontent creator. A physical good type may include a tangible real-worlditem. A physical good type benefit item may be further classified asoriginal sub-type or resale sub-type. Original sub-type may refer totangible real-world items originally generated, compiled, and/orotherwise created by the content creator. A resale subtype may refer totangible real-world items which were acquired (but not created) by thecontent creator for resale through membership platform. A donation typemay include consideration paid in exchange for the altruism insupporting the content creator in their endeavors.

Classification component 110 may be configured to obtain classificationinformation and/or other information. The classification information mayassociate benefit type of individual benefit items with individual taxclassifications. An individual tax classification may specify one ormore of a tax amount to be applied. The tax amount may comprise a flatamount, a percentage of a sale amount, and/or other specification. Insome implementations, the tax classifications may be specific toindividual jurisdictions of the consumer and/or content creator. By wayof non-limiting illustration, the classification information mayassociate a first benefit type with a first tax classification, a secondbenefit type with a second tax classification, and/or other benefittypes with other tax classifications.

Classification component 110 may be configured to classify theindividual benefit items with the individual tax classifications basedon one or more of the benefit type of the individual benefit items, theclassification information, and/or other information. The individualbenefit items may be classified with the individual tax classificationwith which the benefit type of the individual benefit items correspond.By way of non-limiting illustration, by virtue of the first benefit itembeing the first benefit type, the first benefit item may be classifiedin the first tax classification. Furthermore, by virtue of the secondbenefit item being the second benefit type, the second benefit item maybe classified in the second tax classification.

In some implementations, the classification component 110 may beconfigured to determine benefit type of individual benefit items and/orclassify the individual benefit items with the individual taxclassifications using a supervised machine learning model and/or othertechniques. The classification component 110 may be configured to trainthe machine learning model based on input/output pairs. A given pair mayinclude an input and an output. An input may include a description of anindividual benefit item and/or a benefit type of the individual benefititem. An output may include a corresponding benefit type and/or acorresponding tax classification. The description of the individualbenefit item provided as the input may include a description deriveddirectly from the benefit information and/or a description determinedfrom the identification of the individual benefit item from the benefitinformation (e.g., by benefit management component 108).

In some implementations, the classification component 110 may beconfigured to determine benefit type based on entry and/or selection ofthe benefit type of the individual benefit items by the individualcontent creators into a user interface (see, e.g., presentationcomponent 114).

Transaction component 112 may be configured to execute transactions foraccepted ones of the offerings based on one or more of sale amounts ofindividual benefit items, individual tax classifications of theindividual benefit items, and/or other information. The transactions maycomprise transaction amounts. Transaction amounts may comprise one ormore of the sale amounts, added tax amounts, and/or other amounts (e.g.,service fees, convenience fees, etc.). The added tax amounts may bedetermined based on the individual tax classifications and/or otherinformation.

In some implementations, transaction component 112 may be configured toobtain purchase information conveying the acceptance of the offerings ofthe benefit items by the subscribers. For benefit items offered on a peritem basis, acceptance may be conveyed when a subscribers indicatesacceptance through a user interface (see, e.g., presentation component114). For benefit items which are provided to subscribers who pay on arecurring basis, acceptance may be conveyed automatically as long as therecurring subscription is active.

The purchase information may specify the sale amounts of the individualbenefit items and/or other information. The sale amounts may refer toone or more of the per benefit item price (e.g., the sale amount of thebenefit item is specified), the recurring fee, a portion of therecurring fee, and/or other amounts. The recurring fee may comprise thesale amount in the event that the subscriber is provided the benefititem within the recurring fee period. The portion of the recurring feeapplied to a given benefit item may be proportional to the quantity ofbenefit items offered during the recurring fee period. By way ofnon-limiting illustration, for a content creator who offers a givenquantity of benefit items per recurring fee period, the portion of therecurring fee applied to a given benefit item may comprise the recurringfee divided by the given quantity of benefit items and/or othercalculation. By way of non-limiting illustration, for a content creatorwho offers five benefit items per month while charging $10 for themonth, the sale amount for each benefit item may comprise $2 ($10divided by 5 benefit items). In some implementations, one or morebenefit items in a set of benefit items offered over a recurring feeperiod may be weighted more in a per item amount calculation than otherbenefit items. The portion of the recurring fee applied to a givenbenefit item may be determined in other ways.

Transaction component 112 may be configured to determine the added taxamounts based on the sale amounts, the individual tax classifications,and/or other information. By way of non-limiting illustration, the addedtax amounts may comprise percentages of the sale amounts or fixedamounts.

In some implementations, presentation component 114 may be configured toeffectuate presentation of a user interface on computing platform(s) 104of the subscribers. The user interface may display the transactionamounts to the subscribers. The user interface may be configured toobtain entry and/or selection of acceptance of the transaction amounts.In some implementations, for subscribers who pay on a recurring basis,acceptance of the transaction amounts may be conveyed automatically aslong as the recurring subscription is active

In some implementations, executing the transactions may includecollecting the transaction amounts from consumer banks of thesubscribers (see, e.g., consumer bank 28 in FIG. 1 ). In someimplementations, executing the transactions may include remitting theadded tax amounts to an appropriate tax collection entity (e.g., theappropriate jurisdiction). The collecting and/or remitting may beresponsive to obtaining the entry and/or selection of the acceptance ofthe transaction amounts.

By way of non-limiting illustration, a first transaction for the firstbenefit item, a second transaction for the second benefit item, and/orother transactions may be executed. The first transaction may be for afirst transaction amount. The first transaction amount may comprise oneor more of a first sale amount of the first benefit item, a first taxamount determined based on the first tax classification, and/or otheradded amounts. The second transaction may be for a second transactionamount. The second transaction amount may comprise one or more of asecond sale amount for the second benefit item, a second tax amountdetermined based on the second tax classification, and/or other addedamounts.

In some implementations, presentation component 114 may be configured toeffectuate presentation of the user interface on computing platform(s)104 of the content creators. The user interface may be configured toobtain entry and/or selection of identification of individual benefititems from the benefit items, individual benefit type of the individualbenefit items, and/or other information. In some implementations, theobtained entry and/or selection of identification of individual benefititems may be described by the benefit information. This may provide away for content creators to particularly specify individual benefititems from otherwise unstructured text-based input describing benefititems. In some implementations, entry and/or selection of a benefit itemmay be based on one or more of entry into a text-input field, selectionof a benefit item from a drop-down menu, selection of individual checkboxes for individual benefit items, and/or other entry and/or selection.In some implementations, entry and/or selection of benefit type may bebased on one or more of entry into a text-input field, selection ofbenefit type from a drop-down menu, selection of individual check boxesfor individual benefit types, and/or other entry and/or selection.

In some implementations, server(s) 102, client computing platform(s)104, and/or external resources 116 may be operatively linked via one ormore electronic communication links. For example, such electroniccommunication links may be established, at least in part, via a networksuch as the Internet and/or other networks. It will be appreciated thatthis is not intended to be limiting, and that the scope of thisdisclosure includes implementations in which server(s) 102, clientcomputing platform(s) 104, and/or external resources 116 may beoperatively linked via some other communication media.

A given client computing platform 104 may include one or more processorsconfigured to execute computer program components. The computer programcomponents may be configured to enable an expert or user associated withthe given client computing platform 104 to interface with system 100and/or external resources 116, and/or provide other functionalityattributed herein to client computing platform(s) 104. By way ofnon-limiting example, the given client computing platform 104 mayinclude one or more of a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a handheldcomputer, a tablet computing platform, a NetBook, a Smartphone, a gamingconsole, and/or other computing platforms.

External resources 116 may include sources of information outside ofsystem 100, external entities participating with system 100, and/orother resources. External entities participating with system 100 mayinclude tax collection entities and/or intermediaries associatedtherewith. In some implementations, some or all of the functionalityattributed herein to external resources 116 may be provided by resourcesincluded in system 100.

Server(s) 102 may include electronic storage 118, one or more processors120, and/or other components. Server(s) 102 may include communicationlines, or ports to enable the exchange of information with a networkand/or other computing platforms. Illustration of server(s) 102 in FIG.2 is not intended to be limiting. Server(s) 102 may include a pluralityof hardware, software, and/or firmware components operating together toprovide the functionality attributed herein to server(s) 102. Forexample, server(s) 102 may be implemented by a cloud of computingplatforms operating together as server(s) 102.

Electronic storage 118 may comprise non-transitory storage media thatelectronically stores information. The electronic storage media ofelectronic storage 118 may include one or both of system storage that isprovided integrally (i.e., substantially non-removable) with server(s)102 and/or removable storage that is removably communicable withserver(s) 102 via, for example, a port (e.g., a USB port, a firewireport, etc.) or a drive (e.g., a disk drive, etc.). Electronic storage118 may include one or more of optically readable storage media (e.g.,optical disks, etc.), magnetically readable storage media (e.g.,magnetic tape, magnetic hard drive, floppy drive, etc.), electricalcharge-based storage media (e.g., EEPROM, RAM, etc.), solid-statestorage media (e.g., flash drive, etc.), and/or other electronicallyreadable storage media. Electronic storage 118 may include one or morevirtual storage resources (e.g., cloud storage, a virtual privatenetwork, and/or other virtual storage resources). Electronic storage 118may store software algorithms, information determined by processor(s)120, information received from server(s) 102, information received fromclient computing platform(s) 104, and/or other information that enablesserver(s) 102 to function as described herein.

Processor(s) 120 may be configured to provide information processingcapabilities in server(s) 102. As such, processor(s) 120 may include oneor more of a digital processor, an analog processor, a digital circuitdesigned to process information, an analog circuit designed to processinformation, a state machine, and/or other mechanisms for electronicallyprocessing information. Although processor(s) 120 is shown in FIG. 1 asa single entity, this is for illustrative purposes only. In someimplementations, processor(s) 120 may include a plurality of processingunits. These processing units may be physically located within the samedevice, or processor(s) 120 may represent processing functionality of aplurality of devices operating in coordination. Processor(s) 120 may beconfigured to execute components 108, 110, 112, and/or 114, and/or othercomponents. Processor(s) 120 may be configured to execute components108, 110, 112, and/or 114, and/or other components by software;hardware; firmware; some combination of software, hardware, and/orfirmware; and/or other mechanisms for configuring processingcapabilities on processor(s) 120. As used herein, the term “component”may refer to any component or set of components that perform thefunctionality attributed to the component. This may include one or morephysical processors during execution of processor readable instructions,the processor readable instructions, circuitry, hardware, storage media,or any other components.

It should be appreciated that although components 108, 110, 112, and/or114 are illustrated in FIG. 2 as being implemented within a singleprocessing unit, in implementations in which processor(s) 120 includesmultiple processing units, one or more of components 108, 110, 112,and/or 114 may be implemented remotely from the other components. Thedescription of the functionality provided by the different components108, 110, 112, and/or 114 described below is for illustrative purposes,and is not intended to be limiting, as any of components 108, 110, 112,and/or 114 may provide more or less functionality than is described. Forexample, one or more of components 108, 110, 112, and/or 114 may beeliminated, and some or all of its functionality may be provided byother ones of components 108, 110, 112, and/or 114. As another example,processor(s) 120 may be configured to execute one or more additionalcomponents that may perform some or all of the functionality attributedbelow to one of components 108, 110, 112, and/or 114.

FIG. 3 illustrates elements that may make up database 24. As indicatedpreviously, subscription component 18 of FIG. 1 may transmit informationinput by content creator 12 and/or consumer 14 regarding creation and/orsubscribership information to database 24. Subscription platform 16, viaserver 22, for example, may monitor and obtain creation and/orsubscribership information for storage in database 24. For example,subscription platform 16 may monitor and store additional contentcreator and/or subscriber demographic information as well asperformance-related subscribership information, e.g., engagementactivity between content creator 12 and his/her subscribers, one of whommay be consumer 14. For example, subscription platform 16 may monitorthe amount of money being generated and/or lost through the subscribers,as well as content creator 12's subscriber retention rate. For example,subscription platform 16 may monitor and store performance-relatedcreation information, such as the amount of content that content creator12 is creating, how often and/or how quickly content creator 12 reactsto subscriber engagement activity, etc.

Database 24 may include one or more databases or partitions in whichinformation relating to content creator 12, and/or subscribershiprelevant to content creator 12. For example, database 24 may include acontent creator database 24 a, a content database 24 b, a subscriberdatabase 24 c, and a subscription database 24 d. It should be noted thatthe elements and/or functionality of database 24 may be implemented inlocal memory resident in subscription component 18 or shared betweendatabase 24 and the local memory of subscription component 18 ratherthan solely in database 24.

Database 24 may be populated with creation data and/or subscriptionlevel information monitored or obtained from and/or associated withexisting content creator and/or subscriber accounts established insubscription platform 16. Creation data may refer to information thatcharacterizes one or more of content creator 12, the content thatcontent creator 12 creates, and activity engaged in by content creator12 to interact with one or more subscribers and/or to which consumer 14is granted preferential access.

Content creator information characterizing content creator 12 may beinformation reflecting the type of creator that content creator 12designates him/herself to be and/or any preferences regardingsubscription offerings by content creator 12. For example, contentcreator type information may reflect that content creator 12 may be apaint artist, a digital artist, a sculptor, a video game developer, awriter, a performance artist, etc. Content creator preferenceinformation may reflect subscription levels content creator 12 wishes tooffer to subscribers. Content creator preference information mayreflect, e.g., a desired minimum revenue, preferred sources of revenue,subscription level proportions, benefit item weights, and/or otherinformation. For example, content creator preference information mayinclude information indicating content creator 12's desire for moresubscribers pledging some amount of money or less subscribers pledging agreater amount of money. For example, content creator preferenceinformation may include information specifying that content creator 12wishes to supplement his/her subscription-generated revenue with revenuegenerated from the sale of promotional merchandise. Such information maybe stored in a content creator database 24 a.

In addition to content creation-related information, and uponregistering with subscription platform 16 as a content creator, contentcreator 12 may input information characterizing the identity of contentcreator 12. For example, content creator 12 may input or upload contactinformation, a telephone number associated with a personal user device(such as a smartphone), an email address, a photograph, jurisdiction,and/or other identifying information. Such identifying information maybe used by subscription platform 16 in a variety of ways to associatecontent creator 12 with particular content, his/her webpage, payment ofsubscription donations, and/or other information.

Content information characterizing the content that content creator 12creates may refer to one or more of the type of content created, themedium in which the content is created and/or presented, the amount ofcontent created, and/or the frequency at which the content is created.For example, type of content information and/or content mediuminformation may indicate that content creator 12 creates paintings oncanvas, develops video games for a mobile platform, performs in onlinemusical performances, and/or other information. For example, contentamount information may reflect that content creator 12 created a seriesof artwork comprising four paintings. For example, content frequencyinformation may indicate that content creator 12 developed three videogames over the course of six months. Such information may be stored incontent database 24 b.

Consumer 14 may subscribe to content creator 12 by registering withsubscription platform 16. During registration, consumer 14 may inputcertain subscriber demographic information indicative of economic and/orsocial characteristics of consumer 14, jurisdiction of the consumer 14,and/or other information. Subscriber demographic information may reflectthe yearly income of consumer 14, a geographic area in which consumer 14resides, the age of consumer 14, interests of consumer 14, etc.Subscriber information may include data regarding the amount of moneyconsumer 14 is currently pledged to donate to one or more contentcreators. Over time, as monitored and collected by subscription platform16, subscriber information may include information regarding the amountof money consumer 14 has previously donated to one or more contentcreators, including content creator 12. Subscriber information, asmonitored and obtained by subscription platform 16 may include anInternet Protocol (IP) address indicative of a current location ofconsumer 14 and/or an IP address indicating a payment source. Suchinformation may be stored in subscriber database 24 c.

Like content creator 12, consumer 14 may input or upload otheridentifying information that may be used by subscription platform 16 ina variety of ways to associate consumer 14 with particular content, aparticular content creator, payment of subscription donations, etc. Forexample, a photograph or phone number of consumer 14 may be used, e.g.,as a mechanism for correlating consumer 14's attendance at a live eventwith consumer 14's status as a subscriber of content creator 12, anothercontent creator present at the live event, a subscriber of contentsimilar to that being presented at the live event, etc. Such informationmay be stored in subscriber database 24 c. Subscriber component 18 oranother component may be used to provide a user interface that may beused by consumer 14 to input such information.

Subscription level information may refer to information characterizingdifferent subscription levels and corresponding preferential accessinformation specified by content creator 12. For example, subscriptionlevel information may reflect that a ten dollar recurring donation isrewarded with a high-resolution digital image of artwork created duringthat month to consumer 14. Such subscriber level information may bestored in subscription database 24 d.

It should be noted that other databases or partitions may make updatabase 24. For example, database 24 may include one or more databasesor partitions for storing information including, but not limited to thefollowing: preferential access information characterizing activity inwhich content creator 12 engages may refer to data reflecting the typeof activity, the level and/or exclusivity of preferential access to thatactivity granted to consumer 14; subscriber and/or content creatorengagement information characterizing interactions, the type and/orfrequency of interactions between subscribers and content creators,and/or the medium over which interactions may occur; and historicalsubscription level and/or engagement information reflecting subscriptionlevel and/or engagement information monitored and gathered over one ormore periods of time.

It should be noted that some of the information described above may notnecessarily be required. It should be noted that information reflectingadditional aspects of, e.g., the content, content creator, contentcreator preferences, and/or subscribership is contemplated by thedisclosure. For example, preferential access need not necessarily beoffered for each subscription level. For example, subscriber data mayinclude data reflecting particular content creators to which asubscriber pledges donations.

FIG. 4 illustrates a method 400 to determine tax classification ofbenefits offered to subscribers of a membership platform, in accordancewith one or more implementations. The operations of method 400 presentedbelow are intended to be illustrative. In some implementations, method400 may be accomplished with one or more additional operations notdescribed, and/or without one or more of the operations discussed.Additionally, the order in which the operations of method 400 areillustrated in FIG. 4 and described below is not intended to belimiting.

In some implementations, method 400 may be implemented in one or moreprocessing devices (e.g., a digital processor, an analog processor, adigital circuit designed to process information, an analog circuitdesigned to process information, a state machine, and/or othermechanisms for electronically processing information). The one or moreprocessing devices may include one or more devices executing some or allof the operations of method 400 in response to instructions storedelectronically on an electronic storage medium. The one or moreprocessing devices may include one or more devices configured throughhardware, firmware, and/or software to be specifically designed forexecution of one or more of the operations of method 400.

An operation 402 may include obtaining benefit information and/or otherinformation. Operation 402 may be performed by one or more hardwareprocessors configured by machine-readable instructions including acomponent that is the same as or similar to benefit management component108, in accordance with one or more implementations.

An operation 404 may include obtaining classification information and/orother information. Operation 404 may be performed by one or morehardware processors configured by machine-readable instructionsincluding a component that is the same as or similar to classificationcomponent 110, in accordance with one or more implementations.

An operation 406 may include classifying individual benefit items withindividual tax classifications. Classifying the individual benefit itemsmay be based on the benefit type of the individual benefit items, theclassification information, and/or other information. Operation 406 maybe performed by one or more hardware processors configured bymachine-readable instructions including a component that is the same asor similar to classification component 110, in accordance with one ormore implementations.

An operation 408 may include executing transactions for accepted ones ofthe offerings based on the individual tax classifications of theindividual benefit items. Operation 408 may be performed by one or morehardware processors configured by machine-readable instructionsincluding a component that is the same as or similar to transactioncomponent 112, in accordance with one or more implementations.

Although the system(s) and/or method(s) of this disclosure have beendescribed in detail for the purpose of illustration based on what iscurrently considered to be the most practical and preferredimplementations, it is to be understood that such detail is solely forthat purpose and that the disclosure is not limited to the disclosedimplementations, but, on the contrary, is intended to covermodifications and equivalent arrangements that are within the spirit andscope of the appended claims. For example, it is to be understood thatthe present disclosure contemplates that, to the extent possible, one ormore features of any implementation can be combined with one or morefeatures of any other implementation.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system configured to determine taxclassification of benefits obtained by consumers through an onlinemembership platform, the system comprising: one or more physicalprocessors configured by machine-readable instructions to: obtainbenefit information describing benefit items obtained by consumersthrough an online membership platform, the online membership platformhosting the content creators of the benefit items, the benefit itemsbeing classified by benefit types, the benefit types including anoriginal digital good type, a physical good type, and donation type; andclassify individual benefit items with individual tax classificationsby: training a machine learning model based on a set of input/outputtraining information pairs to generate a trained machine learning model,first input training information in a first input/output traininginformation pair comprising a first description of a first benefit item,and first output training information in the first input/output traininginformation pair comprising an indication of a first benefit type of thefirst benefit item and a first tax classification of the first benefititem; determining, using the trained machine learning model, individualbenefit types of the individual benefit items; and classifying, usingthe trained machine learning model, the individual benefit items withthe individual tax classifications.
 2. The system of claim 1, whereinthe content creators offer subscribership to the consumers through theonline membership platform, and wherein the consumers who aresubscribers to the content creators receive the benefit items inaccordance with the subscribership to the content creators.
 3. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the benefit information describes the benefititems in an unstructured data format, and wherein the one or morephysical processors are further configured by the machine-readableinstructions to: identify the benefit items from the benefit informationusing an unsupervised machine learning model.
 4. The system of claim 1,wherein the one or more physical processors are further configured bythe machine-readable instructions to: effectuate presentation of a userinterface on computing platforms of the content creators, the userinterface being configured to obtain entry and/or selection ofidentification of the individual benefit items.
 5. The system of claim1, wherein the one or more physical processors are further configured bythe machine-readable instructions to: effectuate presentation of a userinterface on computing platforms of the content creators, the userinterface being configured to obtain entry and/or selection of theindividual benefit types of the individual benefit items.
 6. The systemof claim 1, wherein the one or more physical processors are furtherconfigured by the machine-readable instructions to facilitate executionof transactions for the benefit items based on the individual taxclassifications of the individual benefit items, wherein thetransactions are based on transaction amounts comprising added taxamounts determined based on the individual tax classifications.
 7. Thesystem of claim 6, wherein the one or more physical processors arefurther configured by the machine-readable instructions to: obtainpurchase information conveying the acceptance of the benefit items bythe consumers; and determine the added tax amounts based on theindividual tax classifications.
 8. The system of claim 7, whereinfacilitating execution of the transactions includes: effectuatingpresentation of a user interface on computing platforms of theconsumers, the user interface displaying the transaction amounts to thesubscribers and being configured to obtain entry and/or selection ofacceptance of the transaction amounts.
 9. The system of claim 8, whereinfacilitating execution of the transactions further includes: responsiveto obtaining the entry and/or selection of the acceptance of thetransaction amounts: collect the transaction amounts; and remit theadded tax amounts to an appropriate tax collection entity.
 10. Thesystem of claim 6, wherein the added tax amounts are a value-added tax.11. A computer-implemented method to determine tax classification ofbenefits obtained by consumer through an online membership platform, themethod being implemented in a computer system comprising one or morephysical processors configured to execute machine-readable instructions,such that execution of the machine-readable instructions causes thecomputer system to perform the method comprising: obtaining benefitinformation describing benefit items obtained by consumers through anonline membership platform, the online membership platform hosting thecontent creators of the benefit items, the benefit items beingclassified by benefit types, the benefit types including an originaldigital good type, a physical good type, and donation type; andclassifying individual benefit items with individual tax classificationsby: training a machine learning model based on a set of input/outputtraining information pairs to generate a trained machine learning model,first input training information in a first input/output traininginformation pair comprising a first description of a first benefit item,and first output training information in the first input/output traininginformation pair comprising an indication of a first benefit type of thefirst benefit item and a first tax classification of the first benefititem; determining, using the trained machine learning model, individualbenefit types of the individual benefit items; and classifying, usingthe trained machine learning model, the individual benefit items withthe individual tax classifications.
 12. The method of claim 11, whereinthe content creators offer subscribership to the consumers through theonline membership platform, and wherein the consumers who aresubscribers to the content creators receive the benefit items inaccordance with the subscribership to the content creators.
 13. Themethod of claim 11, wherein the benefit information describes thebenefit items in an unstructured data format, and wherein the methodfurther comprises: identifying the benefit items from the benefitinformation using an unsupervised machine learning model.
 14. The methodof claim 11, further comprising effectuating presentation of a userinterface on computing platforms of the content creators, the userinterface being configured to obtain entry and/or selection ofidentification of the individual benefit items.
 15. The method of claim11, further comprising effectuating presentation of a user interface oncomputing platforms of the content creators, the user interface beingconfigured to obtain entry and/or selection of the individual benefittypes of the individual benefit items.
 16. The method of claim 11,further comprising facilitating execution of transactions for thebenefit items based on the individual tax classifications of theindividual benefit items, wherein the transactions are based ontransaction amounts comprising added tax amounts determined based on theindividual tax classifications.
 17. The method of claim 16, furthercomprising: obtaining purchase information conveying the acceptance ofthe benefit items by the consumers; and determining the added taxamounts based on the individual tax classifications.
 18. The method ofclaim 17, wherein the facilitating execution of the transactionsincludes: effectuating presentation of a user interface on computingplatforms of the consumers, the user interface displaying thetransaction amounts to the subscribers and being configured to obtainentry and/or selection of acceptance of the transaction amounts.
 19. Themethod of claim 18, wherein the facilitating execution of thetransactions further includes: responsive to obtaining the entry and/orselection of the acceptance of the transaction amounts: collecting thetransaction amounts; and remitting the added tax amounts to anappropriate tax collection entity.
 20. The method of claim 16, whereinthe added tax amounts are a value-added tax.